Thursday, December 22, 2016

Joe Strummer Day 2016: Tymon Dogg Interview (Shows # 635 & 636)

Dubbed the “King of Gypsy Punk”, Tymon Dogg is a multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter that got his start in music at the age of 17. While he was later known for playing the violin in the alternative folk field, his first single “Bitter Thoughts of Little Jane” was recorded and released via Pye Records in 1968. These recordings on this psychedelic tinged pop track also featured then studio musicians Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Shortly after this, Dogg made recordings for Apple records that featured Paul McCartney on piano and James Taylor on guitar, but other than the demo version of “Who Needs A King”, these recordings remain unreleased. Dogg, initially going by the name Timon, also played live with The Moody Blues for a brief period of time. His second single, the Justin Hayward produced “And Now She Says She’s Young/Travelling Man”, was released on the Threshold label. This was a record label created by The Moody Blues.

In the early 70’s, Dogg busked around and played folk clubs in London. It was also around this time that he met future Clash frontman Joe Strummer. Then known as Woody Mellor, the two became fast friends. The friends would later reconnect in 1980 in New York while The Clash were making their triple LP Sandinista! He contributed his song “Lose This Skin” to the album and then piano on the song “Death Is A Star” on 1982’s Combat Rock. Tymon Dogg was also a collaborator and member in Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, one of Joe Srummer’s post-Clash bands. Dogg played live with the group and was featured on 2001’s Global A Go-Go and 2003’s Streetcore. Tymon has collaborated with many musicians and has even produced other musicians. In addition to all this, Tymon Dogg has also released several solo albums, starting with his self-titled album, Tymon Dogg in 1976, an album in which he played all of the instrumentation. Battle of Wills followed in 1982 and Relentless in 1989. In 2010, Cherry Red Records released a retrospective compilation of Tymon’s work entitled, The Irrepressible Tymon Dogg: A Collection 1968-2009 and in 2015, Dogg released his fourth solo album Made of Light.

Every December 22nd, CJAM FM raises awareness of poverty in the Windsor/Detroit area by surrounding it with the music of Joe Strummer and The Clash. For this year’s Joe Strummer Day Marathon on CJAM FM, I was fortunate enough to speak with Tymon Dogg. Below you can hear the interview and download/listen to the program I put tougher featuring the music of Tymon Dogg. In addition to this, I did a program featuring music from the catalogue of Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros and spoke with my co-host Adam about the resources that the Windsor Public Library has to help those who find themselves in poverty and homelessness during this time of year.

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Revolution Rock is an award winning radio program on CJAM FM that first began broadcasting on CJAM’s airwaves in the late night hours of June 2004. Revolution Rock focuses on 60s garage rock, 70s punk/new wave, surf, alternative, indie and new/old music within those genres. Currently the show can be heard Saturday's from 7-9 PM on CJAM 99.1 FM (in the Windsor/Detroit area) and streamed online at cjam.ca. This is an informative blog that provides band profiles, download links to the radio show, playlists and more.

About Me

I am the host of the Revolution Rock radio program on CJAM 99.1 FM (Windsor/Detroit), freelance blogger/writer, musician and film maker.
Download links to my show are provided by the the CJAM website and can be found at the bottom of each play list on this blog and can also be subscribed to as a podcast.